The Advantages of Detention
by isitreallyevenpossible
Summary: With their friendship new and in the balance, the worst thing James could do would be to land him and Lily in detention. With Proffesor Slughorn. Alas, James was never one to play it safe. And that detention turns out to be very fateful. Who knew rag clothes, dirt cauldrons and parchement could be such a turn on? Jily One Shot.


She couldn't believe it, after all, this thing they called a friendship was extremely new and tentative. And what had he gone and done, landed them both in detention.

"How could he, bloody favouritism this is." James moaned as soon as the door shut behind Professor Slughorn, locking him and Lily inside the dungeons for the foreseeable future.

"We wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you." Lily pointed out as she perched upon a nearby chair, letting a hint of smugness creep into her voice.

This earned no reply; he merely turned his back on her and grunted, facing his massive workload head on. Mutterings and grumblings continued as he got to work on the hard manual labour in front of him: scrubbing the cauldrons without the aid of his wand.

Lily giggled quietly behind her desk, likening James to a grumpy old man in her mind, the grumbling making it quite easy.

He whipped his head around a, a scowl plastered on his face: "I knew I shouldn't have got us in trouble with Slughorn, should've chosen someone like Sinatra,"

She looked down at her much easier work, the parchment with an ink pot and quill lay in front of her, before shrugging her shoulders gracefully: a small self satisfied smile still gracing her lips.

He turned back to moaning about his own misfortunate, "Didn't even leave me a wand, but managed to leave me a stack of cauldrons."

Again she laughed, and just to tease him even more she reached into her robes and grabbed her wand pulling it out of her pocket with a huge smirk.

"Oh come on!" He said in a tone of disbelief. "You're killing me here Evans!" He placed a hand on his hand and feigned death, leaning against the desk with his head thrown back.

"Careful or I'll kill you for real, for giving me this bloody detention."

"Language Lily." He trilled, perching himself on the end of her desk, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses with his work all but forgotten.

At least by him.

"Shouldn't you be getting back to work James?" She questioned, ignoring his position on her table and instead looking down at her work, swishing her wand over the quill.

He in turn ignored her question instead leaning down to look at what she had done, she simply rolled her eyes and picked up the quill. Once Lily pressed the nib to the paper and began to write, underneath it the sentence was mirrored as soon as she wrote it: meaning she could finish the work in half the time.

"That's cheating." He cried, amusement colouring his tone as he pointed an accusing finger at her.

"Your work James..." She said, not even bothering to look up.

He grumbled a few times but reluctantly slid off the desk and moved over to the waiting cauldrons, armed with only a dank rag with which to clean them. He discarded his robes and rolled up his shirt sleeves preparing to attack the cauldrons full on, a grunt ready on his lips as he scrubbed vigorously to remove the build up of dirt. He knew Slughorn wouldn't settle for a shoddy job.

After a few minutes of silence, broken only occasionally by James' mutterings or groans, Lily looked up from her half filled parchment to see her partner in a crime she didn't want to commit still steadfastly working away.

Lily found that she couldn't move her eyes away from him, though he was completely unaware of her gaze. She could see the muscles moving underneath his shirt, the mesmerised her, the raw strength and power moving gracefully underneath his thin white shirt. All of a sudden a strange feeling washed over; foreign to her, well at least in regards to James. She wanted to reach over towards, to feel his muscles move beneath his clothes, to touch him and to kiss him. Kiss his soft lips, run her hand through his perpetually mussed hair and feel every inch of him beneath her touch. This couldn't be right; they were barely just friends after having been enemies for years. Still, this feeling wasn't the receding, the urge to reach across the room and feel him beneath her fingertips was remaining strong.

He turned round to face her quickly, jerking her out of her feelings and back to reality. "See something you like?" He asked, eyebrow quirked as a cocky smile graced his face.

"Only the arrogant twat who landed me in detention." She said sweetly, trying to shake away the thoughts she had been having only moments ago.

He laughed, a full bodied laugh that required his whole body, throwing his head back with amusement. An action she felt was far too enthusiastic for a mediocre quip, but she accepted it with a slightly shaky laugh, still half her mind reeling with the emotions she had faced in regards to James: James who was very much her friend and nothing else.

"You really know how to hurt a man Evans." He said, once he was done with his laughing fit, she merely rolled her eyes at him repressing the urge to chuckle at his ludicrousness.

"I think this requires a bit of payback." He mused, tossing the scrap of dirty fabric between his hands as he moved towards her, a menacing expression lit up his face.

She looked up from the nearly completed work, and turned her attention to him, shooting him a quizzical look as she quirked her lips upward.

Without warning and with skills honed by years of quidditch practice, he flung the rag right at Lily's head. She ducked quickly, narrowly missing the flying projectile that hit the desk behind her.

Her smile turned into a huge grin and she stood up rapidly, turning around to grab the scrap and throw it straight at James. It hit its target right away, sliding down his white shirt and leaving a large dirt mark across his torso.

"Not so smug are we no Potter!" She laughed, ironically rather smugly.

He looked down at the large stain on his top, his mouth slack with fake shock. "Whatever will I do now with this gigantic mark." All said as if he cared one iota about his appearance, this coming from the boy with the messiest hair imaginable who frequently had all kinds of mysterious marks and stains blemishing his clothes and himself.

"You do realise we are magical James." She said, the trace of laughter still evident in her voice.

"And you do realise that however kind Slughorn is to his most favourite of students, he doesn't extent the same to us. " He shrugged slowly, hands pulling out his pockets to show they were empty. "I am wandless."

"Not my problem," She said in a sing songy voice, enjoying the inconvenience Professor Slughorn had excluded her from.

"Not mine anymore either." A grin suddenly sprung onto his face as he began to loosen his tie, discarding it on a nearby desk.

Lily watched him remove it, wondering what he was planning on doing. This plan was made pretty clear to hear when he lifted up his shirt and began to peel it off.

"Always have to make a show don't you James?" She murmured, and James could almost hear the eye roll in her voice. He laughed out loud at her remark, his face concealed by his shirt.

Despite her sarcastic remark, she couldn't move her eyes away from his ever revealing torso, once again she was transfixed. Even though she knew James would be able to see any minute, she eagerly took in the view, previously having no idea of what affect he could have on her.

She was very aware now.

"Lily?" He said, his voice soft and velvet without an amusement anymore, his shirt now lay next to his tie.

"Uhuh." She replied, physically shaking her head and looking up to meet his face.

In one swift movement he was stood before her, pushing the desk aside as it made a harsh scrapping sound against the hard floor, it was almost as if he had felt her thoughts in the air. Or heard the hitch in her breath; he was so close that he would certainly be able to hear it now.

"Lily." He repeated, cupping her chin delicately with his hand, lifting her face upwards with hungry eyes searching for an answer within her eyes.

"James." She breathed out, not sure what to think, her body moving closer towards him without her consent, moulding itself against his lean frame. She couldn't for the life of her remember how to breathe properly, the whole world seemed to swim before, the only steady object in her life being James.

Slowly he bent down, his eyes shining so brightly, he could scarcely believe his luck. Here was Lily Evans, the girl he had been in love with since third year, standing so close to him without flinching or running away.

Finally it had paid off.

He inched towards her, and gently placed his lips against her. She responded instinctively, one hand wrapped around his waist whilst her other moved to play with the tufts of hair at the nape of his neck. He parted from her, as if to gauge her reaction. Before the words wait James had left her mouth his lips were on her again, this time more enthusiastically. She couldn't help her reaction, it was as if she relinquished all control over her body, her hand wound in his soft hair. She melted into him, as he passionately kissed her, like he was making up for lost time.

A few minutes later, which seemed like an eternity to James and Lily; locked in some sort of trance by each others touch, James broke apart. A real, true grin was plastered across his face; his eyes were alight as he studied every plane of her face.

"James." Her voice came low and breathless, she leaned into his arms as if she couldn't hold herself up, yet every inch of her felt both inflamed and confused.

"Lily." He exhaled, lifting up her head once more from the position it had fallen into.

Without warning, Lily burst out loud, laughing so hard that she had to hold onto her sides after a moment, still supported by James' firm grip.

"What?" He said, utterly perplexed by her sudden outburst. Though he would never admit it, her laughter brought about fear that everything he thought he saw in her face was a lie.

"How. Many. Times. Have. We. Said. Each. Others. Name." She wheezed, between gales of laughter, doubled over with the force of it.

His brow furrowed for a second, before he began to laugh with as much force as she was. They stood like that for a while, laughing like loons with not a care in the world. Laughing so much that they had to stop to regain their breath.

James used the momentary lapse in laughter to his advantage, pulling her closer to him until he could feel her breath on his face, without wasting a moment her captured her lips with his once again.

When they finally emerged, they were smiling at each other, Lily completely caught up in James. She breathed him in and out, everything was him.

"Feel like helping me with the cauldrons now?" He said, a smile so powerful it could light up Hogwarts seeming like it would never leave his face.

"Prat." She replied, hitting him lightly on the shoulder.

"A prat you just kissed."

"It doesn't make you any less of a prat!" She laughing protested.

"It makes me a happier prat." He responded earnestly, leaning down once again to kiss Lily Evans. Something he thought he would never get sick of.


End file.
